PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 PCS+ Call Of Duty Edition Review

Testing:

Power consumption of the system will be measured in both idle states and loaded states and will take into account the peak voltage of the system with each video card installed. I will use MSI Kombuster to load the GPU for a 15 minute test and use the peak load of the system as my result for the maximum load. The idle results will be measured after 15 minutes of inactivity on the system. For load testing the GTX 580 I will use Crysis Warhead run at 2560x1600 using the mainstream setting using 8xAA looping the frost benchmark scenario as I have found this to put a load close to that of Kombuster on a video card while searching for a replacement test for Kombuster. This is needed as a way around the current limiting ability of the GTX 580 when it detects programs that put an unrealistic load on the GPU such as Kombuster, OCCT and Furmark.

Settings

MSI Kombuster Stability test

1920 x 1200 Resolution

8XAA

15 minute load test

15 minute idle test

Measurement is in Watts

Lower = Better

In 3 out of 4 tests the PowerColor HD 6870 PCS+ delivers better power efficiency numbers than the reference card.